


this is my friend (i found her all on my own)

by WhenFlowersFade



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Dani is the equivalent of 17ish, Dani needs a friend, Danny and co are in college, Gen, Mentions of Mental Illness, Mentions of medication, Post-Episode: s03e12-13 Phantom Planet, background Sam/Danny, just covering my bases, mentions of ADHD, mentions of depression, so i gave her one, takes place a few years after Phantom Planet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25769545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhenFlowersFade/pseuds/WhenFlowersFade
Summary: Set five years after Phantom Planet. Things in Amity Park have more or less settled out. Dani, having taken on some of the burden of protecting the city, stumbles across someone who doesn't treat her like someone famous, or something less than human, and now that she's found a friend, she isn't letting go.Elizabeth is a part-time college student, working freelance to make ends meet. Having lived in Amity Park for a while, she figured she knew what to do about ghosts when they popped up. And then one gets thrown into her living room, and it all goes from there. Being friends with a Phantom isn't the worst thing in the world.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	1. Making Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mortified](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055431) by [Marsalias](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marsalias/pseuds/Marsalias). 



> I binged on the series recently, and this is what became of it. It's not my best work, but I had to get it out of my head so I could work on other things. Some parts of this, specifically the bits about ghosts and their cores, some parts of ghostly obsessions, and referring to halfas as liminal, were inspired by "Mortified" by Marsalias. Excellent fic, highly recommended. Feel free to leave comments, I can promise I'll read them. No promises about updates, however. And now, on to the fic.

Liz wasn’t sure where her day went wrong.

Actually, scratch that, she DID know where her day went wrong. It went wrong when her alarm didn’t go off to wake her up for class. It went wrong when she was rushing around her apartment trying to get ready, and tripped over the rug. It went wrong when she realized she forgot to close the window in the living room. It went wrong when a pale girl in black and white came flying (was thrown?) through the window without breaking it, crashing onto the coffee table, leaking bright green from what looked like several cuts.

She wasn’t sure where it went wrong. But it was wrong now.

Liz had lived in Amity Park long enough to know a ghost when she saw one. And after the events of that fateful summer five years back (the asteroid, the mayor, the ghosts, the ghost-boy’s reveal) she thought she had seen everything. Apparently not.

The pale girl (ghost, Liz reminded herself) stood up and wiped some glowing green off her face. The resemblance between the girl and Phantom (Fenton?) was strong, and when she turned around Liz could see the iconic DP logo on her chest.

“Um… are you okay?” Liz asked cautiously. Living in the Ghost Capital of the World had its perks; ghosts just didn’t scare her, not really.

“Been better,” the girl replied, looking around. Her eyes narrowed, and she lifted off the floor, everything from the waist down turning into a gaseous tail. Seconds passed, then one minute, then two. When nothing happened, the girl set down on the floor again, legs and feet appearing once more.

“Lost him,” she muttered. “Damn it.”

“What’s going on?” Liz asked, still eyeing the glowing green that was sluggishly rolling down the girl’s face again.

“Nothing important,” the girl replied. “Sorry to drop in and run but--” She stumbled a bit and fell to her knees, her form seeming to flicker a little before a pair of bright rings (Liz knew what those were, everyone who knew about Phantom knew what they were now) appeared and ran over her body. The black and white clothes turned into grungy denim and worn shoes and a ratty hoodie, and the glowing green on her face turned red. Her white hair went black, and her glowing eyes went blue. The girl bit out an emphatic ‘damnit’ before she keeled over.

Liz wasn’t going to class that day, clearly.

The girl didn’t look any older than maybe fifteen, and she was surprisingly light as Liz pushed her glasses back up her nose and carefully picked her up. The bleeding looked like it was stopping, which was good, since Liz didn’t know much more than basic first aid, so she just did what she could to get the girl cleaned up and comfortable. Then, since she wasn’t sure what else to do, she closed the window so no more ghosts could come in and settled in to wait for the girl to wake up.

A while later, the girl did in fact wake up with a groan.

“What happened?” she asked, sitting up a bit from where Liz had laid her out on the couch.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Liz replied, getting up from where she was sitting and going over. “Are you okay? You kind of keeled over after… whatever that was.”

“I’m fine,” the girl said. It sounded habitual. Then her stomach grumbled loudly, and she turned a bit red. “Maybe I’m a bit hungry.”

“Well, that’s fixable,” Liz said. She had a million questions in her head, but food became a higher priority. She paused. “Do you… eat real food?” she asked.

“What?” the girl blinked at her with blue eyes.

“Well, I mean…” Liz searched for the right words. “You’re… like Phantom, right? Do ghosts eat? If I made something, would you be okay with it?”

“Oh,” the girl said. She nodded. “Yeah, real food is fine, it’s great.” She grinned. “I’m only half ghost, anyways.”

That made Liz’s brain screech to a grinding halt.

“That’s a thing?” she asked. “For real?”

“For real,” the girl replied. Her stomach grumbled again, spurring Liz into action.

“Okay,” Liz said. “Okay. Food. Grilled cheese and soup okay?”

“Sounds amazing,” the girl replied gratefully. Liz nodded and went into the kitchen.

“I’m Elizabeth, by the way,” she called as she started cooking. “Call me Liz. You’re in my apartment. Feel free to get cleaned up, if you want, make yourself comfortable.”

“Just like that?” the girl asked from the doorway. Liz jumped a little. She hadn’t heard the girl get up or walk around.

“Just like what?” she asked.

“You’re just going to roll with it? With me being here and everything?”

“I don’t see why not,” Liz replied. She shrugged. “I’ve lived in Amity for years, moved here when I was eighteen, and I was on the sensitive end of the spectrum even before that. I’ve been handling ghosts in my life for forever.” She turned to look at the girl. “And honestly, after what Phantom’s done for the town and the world and all, the least I can do is be hospitable to one of his crew.”

“How do you know I’m with him?” the girl asked, her eyes narrowing a bit in suspicion. Liz blinked.

“You wear his logo,” she pointed out. “And the same colors.”

The suspricion evaporated, and the girl blinked.

“Good point,” she said. She grinned. “I’m Danielle. Call me Dani. With an ‘i’.”

~*~

By the time they had eaten and Dani had gotten cleaned up, Liz had gotten at least some of her story from her. Enough to know she was living on the streets part time, at least.

“You don’t have anywhere to go?” Liz asked. Dani shrugged.

“I mean, I could probably go live with my brother,” she said. “Phantom. I know his folks would take me in. But I mean, I like to travel, I like roaming. And I can handle myself.”

“I see,” Liz replied. She was pensive for a moment. “Well, my apartment isn’t much, but it’s just me here, so if you ever need a place to crash that isn’t with your brother, you can always come here.”

“Really?” Dani asked. “But you just met me.”

“Yeah,” Liz allowed. “But I know you’re part of Phantom’s crew, and I know what it’s like to want a place to stay away from family sometimes.” She shrugged. “Offer’s open. I’ll give you my cell number, just give me a heads up so I can leave a window open. Otherwise, I’ve got the place lined with blood blossom to keep ghosts out.”

“You what?” Dani asked, eyes going wide. “Then how did I even get in?”

“The window was open,” Liz replied. “I made blood blossom crayons, for lack of a better word, and I used them to draw a perimeter around the entire inside of the apartment. I figured out how to do it so that I can do things like open windows or the door without having to re-draw it all the time.”

“How’d you manage that?”

Liz grinned.

“Come here, I’ll show you,” she said, standing up. She went over to the window Dani had come in earlier and opened it. The chilly night air drifted in as she pointed to a burgundy line drawn across the underside of the window itself, from edge to edge. “Opening the window creates an opening in the barrier without breaking it. When I close the window, it closes the barrier again because the line is solid again. The door is the same way.”

“That’s amazing,” Dani said, grinning. “Does it really work?”

“IT has so far,” Liz said with a shrug. She closed the window again. “Test it if you want, but I don’t know how effective it will be against you. You said you’re only half, right?”

“Right,” Dani replied. “But Danny told me a blood blossom barrier worked on him before, so it should on me too.” She stood up, and the bright rings of light appeared again. Floating up, she went and touched the wall, pressing her hand against it with visible force. “Yeah, it works, I can’t phase through. That’s really smart, with the crayons.” Touching back down on the floor, she transformed back to her human self.

“Thanks,” Liz replied. “Who’s Danny?”

“Danny, my brother,” Dani replied. “Phantom.”

“Oh!” Liz shook her head a bit. “Duh, I’m an idiot, okay, that makes sense.”

Dani giggled.

“You know, you’re kinda cool for an adult,” she said. “How old are you, anyway?”

“Twenty-six,” Liz replied. Dani nodded, and then yawned. “If you really mean it that I can crash here, I think I’m gonna take you up on it. I’ll be out of your hair in the morning.”

“Make yourself comfortable,” Liz replied. “I can lend you something to sleep in, if you want to give me your clothes so I can wash them.”

“Really? Sounds great,” Dani replied.

Liz washed Dani’s things and left them folded neatly next to the girl. Dani was gone by the time Liz got up the next morning.

Over the next several weeks, the Liz saw more of Danielle. The girl was in and out of town, being the primary protector of it while her brother Danny was in college. Surprisingly, Danny went to the same community college that Liz went to, though they weren’t in any of the same classes. But it was enough that Danny ended up tracking Liz down in the library one afternoon.

“You’re Liz, right?”

Liz blinked and looked up from her textbook, into startlingly familiar eyes.

“Elizabeth, yeah,” she replied. It took her a moment to place the face she was looking at, and when she did she blinked again. “You’re Danny Fenton. Oh wow.”

“Yeah,” Danny replied. He glanced around and sure enough, there were other people trying to get a look at him. He shook his head and turned his attention back to Liz. “You’re the same Liz my sister talks about?”

“Your—” It took her brain a second to catch up. “Oh, you mean Danielle? I mean, yeah I’ve met her a few times, she’s crashed at my place once or twice. She’s pretty cool. Why?”

“She told me about you, I wanted to meet you for myself,” Danny replied with a shrug. “Looking out for my little sister and all.”

Liz nodded.

“Makes sense,” she said. She shrugged. “Like I told her, I’ve dealt with ghosts in my life even before I moved to Amity Park, they don’t scare me. And I have a close-circuit barrier in my apartment to keep ghosts out unless I let them in.”

“Dani mentioned that, she said something about crayons?” Danny raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Liz said. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a jumbo-size burgundy crayon wrapped in wax paper. The crayon was about seven inches long and an inch thick. “Blood blossom oil, a little coconut oil, and red crayons all melted together. Works pretty well, actually. I’m planning to make extra in my next batch and give some to Danielle, for when she’s traveling.”

“That’s brilliant,” Danny said, looking at the crayon. Liz noticed he didn’t get too close. “She told me about how you let her test the barrier, how it only works on her ghost half?”

“Yeah,” Liz replied, nodding. She put the crayon back in her bag.

“So why are you doing all this?” Danny asked. Liz thought about that for a moment before she answered.

“Because I’m older,” she said. “And Danielle’s a kid. The least I can do is look after her when she comes to my place. It’s an adult’s job to look after kids.” She paused. “And it’s like I told her. After everything you’ve done for the rest of us, offering hospitality to one of your crew is the absolute least I can do.” Pulling a sticky note out of her bag, she jotted down her address and phone number. “Here. I gave this to Danielle, too. Just in case you or your crew needs somewhere to crash. Give me a heads up and I’ll make sure my apartment is open.”

“Thanks.” Danny took the note and tucked it away. “And thanks, for supporting Dani. She doesn’t like asking for help, and I feel better knowing she’s got one more safe place to go if she needs it.”

“Don’t mention it,” Liz said.

~*~

“So what’s your job, anyway?”

Liz glanced up where Dani was in her ghost form floating in the air on her back, as if she were in an invisible hammock. Liz was set up at a small desk against one wall, tapping away at her laptop. The window was open, letting in the balmy spring warmth.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her typing not even pausing.

“Well, I know you go to college,” Dani said, “but I’ve only seen you there a couple times a week. And you must have a job, to pay rent and stuff. So what’s your job?”

“I’m a freelance writer,” Liz replied. She paused her typing and read over what she had written, to make sure the conversation hadn’t messed her up. “I contract myself to bigger companies for copywriting and such. Sometimes to magazines for articles.”

“Really? That’s kinda cool,” Dani replied. She flipped over so she was lying in the air on her stomach. “What are you going to school for?”

“Journalism,” Liz replied. “And digital marketing.”

“So that’s like, for running a magazine, right?” Dani asked. Her green eyes were faintly glowing, alight with curiosity and ectoplasm.

“More or less,” Liz replied. “Journalism is for the actual articles and such. Digital marketing is just to beef up my skills for once the articles are done.”

“Fun stuff,” Dani said. They lapsed into comfortable quiet, filled only by soft music to help Liz focus and the rhythmic typing of her keyboard.

“Fuck,” Liz suddenly said, stopping her work completely. She reached down for her school bag and rummaged through it as panic shot through her, orange and sharp. “Fuck fuck fuck.”

“What is it?” Dani asked.

“I just remembered I have an assignment due for communications in like two days and I forgot all about it,” Liz said, pulling out her binder. “It’s worth like half my final grade.” She flipped through the folders inside until she found the one she needed and pulled out a piece of paper. “Fuck, it’s due in two days, fuck fuck fuck…”

“I think that’s the most f-bombs I’ve ever heard dropped in a single minute,” Dani observed. “What’s the assignment, can I help?”

“I have to interview someone and write it up as an article,” Liz said, setting down the paper on her desk and fiddling with her computer for a moment. Her earlier panic simmered down to yellow anxiety and trembled under her heart. “It has to be a certain length, so it can’t be too short, and it needs to be someone I’m not related to. It’s not hard, I’ve done it before, but I just don’t have time now to find someone to interview. Not with only a day to do it.”

“Does it have to be anyone in particular?” Dani asked, touching down on the floor again and going over to read the paper. “Or can it be anyone?”

“It can be anyone, as long as they aren’t my family,” Liz said, scrolling through her list of contacts. She had to have someone who would be willing.

“So interview me,” Dani suggested. That brought Liz’s frantic activity to a screeching halt.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Sure,” Dani replied. She gave a cocky grin. “Nobody’s ever interviewed me before, not like Danny’s gotten. Sounds fun.”

“I—” Liz considered it. “Okay. But since you’re a kid, I’m gonna need to write up a permission slip, just to be on the safe side. Whoever you’ve got that passes for a parent-slash-guardian will need to sign it, and you will too.”

“I don’t have a parent,” Dani pointed out. “And I’m mostly on my own.” She looked pensive for a moment. “I think I know who I can get to sign it. We’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Liz said. She took a breath to calm herself down. “Okay. Give me a few to set myself up, and we can do this thing.”


	2. Dani, with an 'i'

To: dfenton1@amitycc.student.edu

From: eburnette1@amitycc.student.edu

Subject: interview with dani

Message: Hello, attached is the interview with Dani I did, as agreed. She had me edit out some sensitive information regarding how she’s actually related to you, but I wanted to forward it along to you just in case there was anything else I should edit out. And thanks for signing that form for Dani, it’s mostly to cover my butt in case someone gives me grief about interviewing a minor. --Liz

To: eburnette1@amitycc.student.edu

From: dfenton1@amitycc.student.edu

Subject: re: interview with dani

Message: Hi Liz, the interview looks good, I don’t see anything that would get anyone into trouble. Maybe go light on the whole thing with cores? If you can, that is. If not, it’s not a huge deal, it’s not like there aren’t papers about it at this point. Thanks for editing out the bit about how we’re related. One more thing, for future reference if it ever comes up, don’t ask a ghost about their Obsessions. It’s kinda personal and a lot of them will be offended. Also don’t ask them how they died, for the same reasons. Good luck on the assignment. --Danny

To: dthurston1@amitycc.faculty.edu

From: eburnette1@amitycc.student.edu

Subject: interview assignment

Message: Hello Professor, attached is my submission for the interview assignment. I’ve also attached a supporting document showing that I and the person I interviewed had permission, since she’s a minor. Please let me know if you need anything else regarding the assignment. --Elizabeth Burnette

~*~

_Dani With An I: Debut interview with Danielle Phantom_

_Written by Elizabeth Burnette, freelance_

_E_ _lizabeth Burnette_ _: Hello,_ _today I’m doing an exclusive, debut interview with one of Amity Park’s world-famous Phantoms. Welcome,_ _and thank you for taking the time to answer some questions today. For the record, your name is Danielle Phantom, is that right?_

_D_ _anielle Phantom_ _: It’s Dani, with an ‘i’._

_EB: Okay, Dani. Could you start with telling me a little about yourself?_

_DP: Where do you want me to start?_

_EB: Well, how about we start with you? You call yourself Phantom, a_ _ny_ _relation to the famous Danny Phantom?_

_DP: Oh, yeah! I guess you could say Danny is my brother, or my cousin. We’re definitely related, at least._

_EB: Brother and cousin are different degrees of relation. Which would you consider it to be?_

_DP: Probably brother. We’re pretty close._

_EB: Great. For background, this past summer it was revealed that Danny Phantom, the protector of Amity Park, is really Danny Fenton, the son of the renowned ghost hunting scientists Jack and Maddie Fenton. What does that mean, exactly, that Phantom and Fenton are the same person? Clearly, one is human and one is a ghost._

_DP: Well, we’re called halfas. Or I guess some of the really old ghosts call us liminals._

_EB: I understand the word ‘liminal,’ but ‘halfa’?_

_DP: Yeah, halfa. Half-a-ghost, half-a-human._ _We’re half ghost, half human, and we can switch between the two whenever we want._

_EB: How does something like that even come about?_

_DP: Well, I can’t give details, so don’t ask for them, but my brother had a lab accident that made him a halfa. I was… made differently._

_EB: I see. So you can switch between ghost and human any time?_

_DP: Yup. It’s pretty great. I can travel anywhere I want, because I can fly, and I don’t have to eat human food n_ _early as often as normal people_ _, since my core is supported by other kinds of energy. And I can do all the basic ghost stuff, and a bunch of other stuff that Danny can do too._

_EB: I’ll come back to the ‘basic ghost stuff’ in a moment, but you said a core?_

_DP: Yeah, all ghosts have a core. It’s kind of like… A heart, I guess? It’s the source of a ghost’s power, and it lets them hold themselves together in whatever shape they want._

_EB: Fascinating. But you’re also half human, does that mean you don’t have a physical heart?_

_DP: No, I have one of those too. It’s kind of complicated, I have human organs and also a ghost core, and the two systems kind of overlap._

_EB: Does having a ghost core interfere with your human parts at all? Pulse, breathing, anything?_

_DP: Yeah, actually. We tested it once, and apparently my pulse is about half as fast as a normal human. And because I’m a cold-core ghost, my body temperature runs way lower than normal humans. And if I have a few minutes to prepare, I can go a long time without breathing._

_EB: That’s incredible. But what do you mean by ‘cold-core ghost’?_

_DP: Well, a lot of ghosts have, I don’t know, elemental cores? So like, their core, and their powers, kind of skew towards a particular thing. So like I’m a cold-core ghost, and I have ice powers. But I know some fire-core ghosts, who use ghost fire, and I’m pretty sure there are electric-core ghosts out there, and all sorts of others._

_EB: I had no idea there was that kind of variation._

_DP: Yeah, it’s kinda cool._

_EB: So, coming back around, you mentioned basic ghost powers, and ice powers? Can you explain a little more?_

_DP: Sure. So like, basic ghost powers are like the ones all ghosts have. You know, walk through walls, disappear, and fly, and things like that. And like I said, I have ice powers because I have a cold core. So like I can create ghost ice, and shoot f_ _reeze_ _rays from my hands, and my ghost-sense comes from my core. I can do a bunch of other things, too, like fire energy rays, and overshadow someone if I wanted, and I’ve been working on duplication._

_EB: That’s a lot of things. And are those unique to you?_

_DP: Not really, I don’t think I have any abilities that are really mine, you know? Pretty much anything I can do, so can my brother. We even have pretty similar Obsessions. That’s with a capital ‘O’._

_EB: Obsessions? I don’t think I understand._

_DP: All ghosts have at least one Obsession. It’s what makes them ghosts in the first place. Normal ones, at least, not counting halfas like me. It’s kind of like… I don’t know, it’s like the thing you feel the most about. The thing you would literally come back from the dead for._

_EB: So like, your passion?_

_DP: If your passion were on steroids. So like, m_ _y primary Obsession is_ _protecting people. I gotta do it, like it’ll tear m_ _y core_ _apart if I don’t. Amity Park belongs to-- well, D_ _anny_ _, mostly, but me too, and so I gotta help protect it when I’m here. But my other Obsession is with freedom. It’s why I travel, it’s the easiest way to feed my Obsession without getting into trouble. I won’t stay in one place for more than a few days, I have to explore and see things and I refuse to be tied down to pretty much anything._ _Mom and Dad Fenton joke and call me a dandelion because I go where the wind takes me._ _And I can’t stand to see my people not having freedom, so I gotta do everything I can do give it to them._

_EB: Your people?_

_DP: yeah. So like, Amity Park, all of it, they’re my people because Amity Park is mine, just like it’s my brother’s. But then the people I care about are e_ _ven more_ _my people. You know, my brother, his friends, his family, my friends. They’re all mine. And like, I know it sounds selfish, but it’s kinda like to me, to my core, this is all mine, nobody can take it or interfere because it all belongs to me and I’ll protect it. I’m only able to share with Danny because he’s mine, too, and him protecting my people is the same as me doing it._

_EB: I see. I think I understand where you’re coming from with that._

_DP: Yeah, it’s kind of intense, but all ghosts function like that where Obsessions are concerned._

_EB: Speaking of other ghosts, it’s well known in Amity Park that there are a handful of ghosts that keep turning up to make trouble. Can you tell me about some of them?_

_DP: You mean like S_ _pectra_ _, and Technus and them?_

_EB: Right._

_DP: Well, there’s not a whole lot to tell, really. They turn up every so often, mostly to spar with my brother. They used to be serious fights, but since the whole Disasteroid thing, everyone’s kind of on the level now, and they all know Danny can beat them to a pulp, so it’s mostly just for fun now, I think. There’s this one, Skulker? He calls himself the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunter, and he keeps saying he’ll put my brother’s pelt on his wall. He hasn’t yet, and to be honest Danny’s too strong for him now anyways, but it’s still fun to watch them go at it. And this other guy, Johnny 13, and that’s the actual number 13, he and Danny are kind of friends now? Sort of?_

_EB: So they essentially show up to cause trouble, what, because they’re bored?_

_DP: Maybe? I don’t claim to know how their brains work._ _I just know that by now, I don’t think they’re serious about fighting Danny anymore._

_EB: Have you had to fight any of them at all?_

_DP: Not by myself, mostly because they come to Amity and I’m usually traveling. But sometimes someone will show up when I’m here, and Danny and I tag-team them. It’s fun._ _But I guess now that my brother’s in college, he’s gotta put more focus on that, so I’m trying to hang around as long as I can to look after Amity for him._

_EB: Makes sense. You’re a good sister, to do that for him._

_DP: Thanks, I try. He’s done so much for me, I’m glad I can return the favor._

_EB: I completely understand. Is there anything else you want to talk about before we wrap things up?_

_DP: Not really. But I really appreciate the opportunity to give an interview. Danny gets so much attention, I’m kinda glad to get some of it myself._

_EB: Thank you in return for agreeing to give the interview. It’s been absolutely enlightening, more than I ever dreamed._

_DP: No problem. Anyway, I’m off, I have to do a patrol around Amity, so I’m sure you’ll see me around._

_EB: Thanks again, Dani, and be safe._

_~*~_

Professor Hurston stared down at the three-page interview in front of him, not entirely sure he believed what he was reading. One of his students had actually gotten an interview with one of the Phantoms? Granted, everyone knew Daniel Fenton was a student at the university, but he so rarely showed up as Phantom that nobody had gotten a chance to interact with him as a ghost. And until now, nobody had known how to contact Danielle Phantom. On top of that, Danielle Phantom was clearly a minor, and his student had gone so far as to get a permission slip to do the interview with her. Professor Hurston looked at the permission slip that had been submitted with the interview.

_ Danielle ‘Dani’ Phantom _ _is hereby given permission to give an in-person interview with_ _ Elizabeth Burnette _ _for the purposes of academic submission._ _ Elizabeth Burnette _ _is hereby allowed to interview_ _ Danielle _ _regarding_ _herself and_ _the topic of ghosts, to be answered at_ _ Danielle’s _ _discretion. All material submitted is reviewed and approved by_ _ Danielle’s _ _guardian. Any submission of this interview for purposes other than academics is hereby prohibited unless discussed beforehand with_ _ Danielle’s _ _guardian._

_Signed:_

_Interviewer: Elizabeth Burnette _

_Interviewee: Danielle ‘Dani’ Phantom _

_Signing Guardian:_ _ Dann_ _y_ _Fenton (Phantom) _

Professor Hurston stared at the signatures at the bottom for a moment before filing it all away. Elizabeth Burnette had somehow not only gotten Danielle Phantom to agree to an interview, but had gotten Danny Fenton/Phantom to agree that Danielle could do it. All of the faculty knew that Danny Fenton mostly kept to himself in class, and had a very tight little group of friends outside of class, tight enough that they didn’t let anyone else in. It was understandable, the boy had become a superhero at fourteen and a celebrity at fifteen, nobody blamed him for wanting personal space. But that made Elizabeth’s achievement that much more impressive.

Opening his email, Professor Hurston sent a message to Elizabeth, asking if the interview could be put in the school paper. After a moment, he CC’d Danny Fenton as well, just to be safe.

The interview circulated in the very next issue of the school paper.


	3. Brain Weasels

Liz was never so glad that people genera l ly didn’t know her. Once the interview circulated, everyone was trying to figure out who she was, and she made sure to stay more or less out of the spotlight by hiding out in the library between classes and not lingering on campus any longer than she had to.  Finals were coming up  with the end of spring semester , and she was starting to run out of quiet places on campus to study, and her home time was usually taken up by real work.

Unfortunately, after her last class of the day, she found herself sort of blocked in by a bunch of students all gathered near the doors. Apparently, a bunch of them had thought that they could intercept her on her way out  to question her about the Phantoms.  Anxiety welled up in her, yellow and vibrating through her chest.  She briefly debated taking off her glasses to be less recognizable so she could sneak by, but before she could decide, a cold hand came down on her shoulder.

“Need an out?” a quiet voice asked from behind. Liz jumped and slapped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming, surprise flashing through her like lightning. Turning her head, she didn’t see anyone behind her, but she could still feel the hand on her shoulder.

“It’s Danny,” the quiet voice continued. Now that she heard it again, Liz recognized that yes, it was Danny Fenton’s voice. “I’m invisible behind you. You look like you need an out.”

“Please,” Liz replied, just as quietly from behind her hand. “I don’t want to get caught in the crowd.”

“ No problem,” Danny murmured. His hand grew colder, and the cold sensation spread quickly over her entire body,  making her go weirdly numb . Another sensation quickly followed and overlapped the strangely numb cold, this one a tingling that reminded her of TV static.

“I’m going to pull you along,” Danny said quietly. “We’re invisible and intangible. Just keep walking, and stay calm.”

“Okay,” Liz breathed. The icy hand slid down her arm to her wrist and gently tugged. Liz followed the tug and let Danny pull her out past the crowd, through the wall, and outside. Once they were out of the building, he led her to an obscured corner, and then the icy-tingling-numb all vanished.

“Are you okay from here?” Danny asked. He was Phantom, instead of Fenton, and Liz was a bit started at how incredibly similar he and Danielle looked.

“Yeah,” she said after a moment. “My car is in the student garage. Thanks for the escape.  That was also really cool. ”

“No problem,” Danny replied. “I know what it’s like. And you’re one of Dani’s people.”

“Still, thanks,” Liz replied. She studied him for a moment. “You must be having the worst time of this.  If you need somewhere to study for finals , you’re welcome to  set up at my place, as a thank you for helping me out . It’ll be easier than studying at the library, at least.”

“Thanks, but I was going to meet up with my friends to study,” Danny said. He glanced around, clearly keeping an eye out for ghosts and groupies.

“Bring the crew, if you want,” Liz said. “I’ll order pizza. No pressure or anything,” she added hastily. “Offer stands if you change your mind.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Danny said.  With that, he disappeared from sight. Liz assumed he flew off. 

She made it to her car without incident, and from there she was home free.

There was still a week till finals, so Liz really didn’t expect any visitors at first. There also seemed to be an uptick in ghost activity, and every day Liz was hearing how the Phantoms were taking down various ghosts. She knew they could handle themselves, but she still found herself a bit worried about them. They were her friends, after all.

Two days before finals, Liz was in her apartment. Her articles for work were done, and her last assignments for class were done, and she wasn’t really studying much. A glimmer of green light caught the corner of her eye from out the window, and she went to see what was going on,  curiosity fluttering pink and green around her heart . She could see flashes of green, and the window vibrated slightly, but the trees from the public park were in the way. She opened it to see if she could hear what was going on.

“Beware!” She didn’t know that voice. It was male, and kind of reedy, with an odd echo that Liz couldn’t quite place.

“Oh come on, really?” That was definitely Dani.

“Really? W e  don’t have time for this.” That one was Danny. Liz figured they had probably been together.

“I can handle him, you can go.”

“HOW DARE YOU BRUSH ME OFF LIKE A PACKING PEANUT! I AM THE BOX GHOST!”

“ Aw damnit, there he goes!”

Liz wasn’t sure what happened next. All she knew was that something burst out of the trees, coming right at her, and then all of a sudden there was a flash of white light and it was gone. When the light faded, both of the Phantoms were there, and Danny had what looked like a thermos in his hands.

“H ey,  Liz,” Dani said, waving in her direction.

“Hey, guys,” Liz said warily. “What just happened?”

“The Box Ghost decided to get uppity,” Dani said. “It’s a good thing we were already coming this way.”

“Oh, okay,” Liz said. She paused. “Why were you coming this way?”

“Study session at Fentonworks,” Da nny said before Dani could open h er mouth. “You’re invited.”

Liz blinked.

“What?”

“My Obsession is flaring and I want all my people safe and happy,” Dani said, pouting a bit. “And it’s easier to keep my people safe and happy if they’re all in one place, and Valerie isn’t around, and you’re my people too.”

“ She convinced me to come with her to talk to you,” Danny said with a shrug. “And it’s been cleared with my parents and all, so it’s cool if you come over to study.”

“Sam and Tucker will be there too,” Dani added. At Liz’s blank look, she added “the crew?”

“Okay,” Liz said carefully. She thought about it for a moment. “I’ll grab my stuff. Is there parking?”

“No,” Danny said. Dani grinned.

“I’m gonna fly you,” she said.

“ What.” Liz stared at them.

“Oops,” Dani said. She flew closer and waved a hand in front of Liz’s face. “Did I break you?”

“I’m okay,” Liz said. She shook her head a bit. “Okay. Flying. Gotta wrap my head around that. Let me get my things.”

She turned away from the window, though she left it open to keep the opening in the blood blossom barrier. She grabbed her school bag and shoved her laptop into it, and grabbed her evening meds and dropped those into her bag as well. Patting herself down real quick, she grabbed her phone and her keys. She locked her front door, and then went back to the window, her bag over her shoulder.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this before I lose my nerve.”

~*~

It felt a little surreal for Liz to have so many new and rather high-profile numbers in her phone now. At the study session, she ended up getting the number for Fentonworks, Sam’s number, Tucker’s number, and Danny’s older sister Jasmine’s number, all just in case. In return, she passed around her own phone number. Afterwards, everyone was promptly enamored with the barrier crayons she made, and she ended up leaving t he one from her bag there so Jack and Maddie could play around with it.

It still took them a little while to get to studying, because after the crayon thing was a getting-to-know-you session, where everyone asked her questions about who she was  and what she did  and how she met the Phantoms.  After that, and a round of pizza, they finally got to studying.

Liz found she genuinely liked Team Phantom. They were fun and friendly and welcoming, and it was obvious they were all close. That closeness, however, made Liz feel a little left out. She was clearly the newcomer, the interloper, and she would never really be one of them. They were Team Phantom, after all, and they were closer to each other than she could ever be. A wave of depressed lonliness washed over her, green-gray and heavy, and she turned her eyes back to her notebook. She didn’t notice how two sets of blue eyes flashed green and immediately looked at her.

“Liz, you okay?” Dani asked, putting a hand on Liz’s arm. Dani’s hand was cold, as usual. Liz looked up, blinking.

“Hm? Oh, I’m fine,” she said, giving a quick smile and pushing her glasses up. The look on Dani’s face said she clearly didn’t believe her, and Liz mentally scrambled. She wasn’t used to someone calling her out on her depression, and a small orange flash of panic stabbed through her chest.

“I don’t believe you,” Dani said, matching the look on her face. “Ghosts feed on emotional energy, you know. We can taste yours, and it’s not nice. What’s wrong?”

Liz was about to deny it again, and stopped.

“Wait, hold on,” she said,  holding up an hand  glancing between the two human Phantoms. “You can  _ what now _ ?”

“ Did they forget to mention that?” Sam asked. “Figures.”

“Dude, that’s kinda something you should mention to the newbies before bringing them home,” Tucker added, though he was grinning a bit.

“Hey, don’t blame us, it never came up,” Danny protested. “ Besides, she’s Dani’s, not mine.” 

Dani kept her eyes on Liz.

“ Seriously, Liz,” she said.

“Really, I’m fine,” Liz said, holding the line. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Dani protested.

“Dani, if she doesn’t want to talk about it, she’s allowed,” Jazz said gently. “Freedom of choice, remember?”

Dani seemed to deflate a bit, but nodded.

“Yeah, okay,” she said. She looked at Liz pleadingly. “But if you want to talk about it, you can, alright?”

“I’m fine, Dani,” Liz replied. She hesitated. “My depression got triggered, that’s all. I’m okay. I’ll take my meds, they’ll even me out, it’s all good.” That wasn’t quite the truth, but she hoped it would get them off her back about it until she was ready to say something. Which might be never.

“Are you sure?” Dani pressed.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Liz said. She danced carefully around the issue of her depression all the time, and was well-used to deflecting away from it. “Two seconds and I’ll take my meds.” Opening her bag, she rummaged for the meds she had dropped in there earlier. It was about time she took them anyways, so she shook out a dose and popped it in her mouth. “ There.  My ADHD is all out of whack, anyways, I’ve had a song stuck in my head for like four days and right now it’s  getting so loud I can’t think around it.”

“Wait, that’s a thing?” she heard Tucker ask.

“Yep, totally,” she heard Jazz respond. “ People with ADHD have chronically understimulated brains.”

“That’s wild.”

Liz took a breath, forcing her triggered mental illness back down, and the gray-green lonely depression calmed to a still, deep navy. She wasn’t okay, not yet, but she was a bit better. She glanced at Dani, who nodded once.

“Better,” D ani p ronounced . She grinned. “Any other brain problems we should know about?”

“Dani, you can’t just ask that!” Jazz protested. Liz just grinned a bit.

“Synesthesia?” she offered. “Lots of imperceptible things get turned pretty colors in my head.”

“Like how?” Dani asked, clearly interested now. She leaned forward until she was practically in Liz’s lap.

“Like…” Liz fished around for something as an example. “Like your name is a really pretty shade of purple.”

“My name is… purple?” Dani asked, blinking. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked at Liz, studying abandoned. She nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “Danielle is this pretty shade of lilac, kind of delicate. Mostly from the D, D tends to be like this deep indigo, but the Ls lighten it up a lot. A and N have their own colors, but they get overtaken by the D, mostly, so it all evens out to light purple.”

“ Ooh, ooh, me next!” Tucker said, waving a hand. Liz rolled his name around a bit.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “The T is green, and so is the E, but the U-C-K muddy it up, turns it sort of brown,  but like, kind of loamy brown, like good soil .  The R is also pretty dark, which buries the green even more. ”

“Aww, man,” Tucker said.

“What about me?” Jazz asked, smiling.

“Magenta,” Liz promptly said. “J azz is definitely magenta,  with the Zs. Jasmine is lighter, though, more pink. ”

“Do vowels not have colors?” Sam asked, curious. Liz shrugged a bit.

“They do,” she said. “But they don’t tend to strongly color a word unless they’re the beginning letter. So like, Liz is a y ellow-green , but E lizabeth is  more of an emerald or forest  green. For the record, Sam is blue and red, because the S and M are both pretty strong  and overpower the A , but Samantha is closer to navy. And Daniel is… indigo and white.”

“What else?” Dani asked. “Numbers?”

“Numbers are the same way, yeah,” Liz confirmed. “And feelings, feelings sometimes come across as colors too. Not sounds, though, or flavors, they don’t get translated into colors.”

“That’s so weird,” Tucker said.

“I don’t control how my brain-weasels work,” Liz said with a shrug.  She pushed her glasses back up her nose, and was a little surprised to discover that she felt better. The deep, still navy in her heart had lightened and brightened to a more content blue.

The group of them ended up dissolving back into discussion, eventually back to studying. Dani tucked herself up against Liz’s side.

“Your emotions taste better,” she murmured. “That’s good.”

“I feel better,” Liz replied. “Thanks.” She stretched a bit.

“It’s getting late,” Jazz said. She looked at Liz. “Do you want to crash here tonight?”

“As long as it’s no trouble,” Liz replied. “I don’t have classes, so I’d just need a ride back to my apartment in the morning.”

“I can take you,” Dani immediately volunteered.

“ It’s no trouble at all,” Jazz assured her. “You can bunk in my room, I’ll lend you something to sleep in.”

“Thanks,” Liz replied with a smile. “Sounds good.”


	4. Heatstroke

After finals, Liz (bright shiny new degree in hand) ended up wrapped up in some articles for work. She was so wrapped up in them that she had to bow out of a couple of invitations from Dani to go out and do things. She did genuinely regret having to refuse, but working for her rent money came first.  She got the feeling that Dani was pouting over being refused, because she stopped texting Liz for nearly two weeks.

Once her string of articles wound down, Liz found herself with some free time and nothing to do with it. Taking out her phone, she sent Dani a text, though she wasn’t really expecting a reply.

_Liz B: Articles are done for now. My weekend just opened up if you’re around and still interested in doing things._

Restlessness jittered through her, and she paced her apartment looking for something to do. Eventually, she turned on some music and pulled out her yarn stash, rooting through for a project to work on.  She wanted to open the windows, but an early heat wave had rolled in and she was trying to keep the apartment as closed as she could so her little air conditioner could t ry to keep up . Once she had a project to work on, she parked herself right in front of the AC to try to keep herself cool.

The black and white yarn in her hands slowly began to take shape as she worked. She made a mental note to pick up some bright green, and some lilac, and then paused and made a real note in her phone as well, just so she wouldn’t forget. Just as she was putting it down again, she got a text from Jazz.

_Jazz F: Come to Fentonworks, we need a hand with Dani. Bring warm clothes and a coat. Park on the grass next to the GAV._

Liz desperately wanted to ask why the hell she needed warm clothes  when it was nearly a hundred degrees outside, but since it was Jazz texting her and not Dani or Danny, she didn’t waste time asking. Something was definitely wrong if Jazz was texting her.

_Liz B: On my way._

Liz put her project down and ran to shove some warm clothes into a bag, yellow anxiety bubbling up in her chest. Long jeans, a long sleeve tee, socks, shoes. She almost hesitated in grabbing her coat, but Jazz had said to, and she trusted Team Phantom when they said to do something, so she grabbed it. Then she made sure to shove her meds into her purse, grabbed her keys, and ran out the door.

There wasn’t any traffic, since everyone was trying to avoid the heat, so Liz made it to the brownstone in good time. Jamming her purse into the bag with her clothes, she went and knocked on the door. Jazz opened it.

“Good, you’re here,” she said. She stepped aside and gestured for Liz to come in, and Liz did so.

“What’s going on?” Liz asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Kind of,” Jazz said. “Come with me, downstairs.” She gestured to Liz again and led her into the basement. Liz followed, and almost tripped on the stairs when she saw what was going on.

There were what looked like two plastic kiddie pools set on the concrete, both filled with water and ice, and the concrete around them was wet. Sam and Tucker were kneeling by one, Jack and Maddie by the other. In each pool, one of the Phantoms was lying partially submerged in the ice bath. Both were in human form, but Liz could see they looked unhealthily flushed, and neither seemed to realize she and Jazz had walked in.

“What’s going on?” Liz asked, eyes wide. She pushed her glasses up as they slid down her nose. “Are they okay?”

“They don’t do well in heat,” Jazz said as she went towards her family. “Cold-cores. It got too hot too fast for them to acclimate.”

“Will they be alright?” Liz asked, setting down her things. She went over to where Dani was lying in the ice bath.

“They will once we can get them to the Far Frozen,” Sam answered from where she was keeping an eye on Danny. “It’s in the Ghost Zone.”

“Okay,” Liz said. She glanced between them all. “So what do you need me for?”

“We need another pair of hands to get them to the Far Frozen,” Jazz replied. “And you’re the one we trust most with Danielle, outside of us.”

“Why?” Liz pressed. “I mean, there are five of you, and two of them.”

“Jack and I will be staying here,” Maddie answered. “J ust in case there’s a ghost attack while you’re in the Ghost Zone .”

“Tucker and I will be staying too,” Jazz added. “To support my parents, i f anything happens.”

“Which means you and I will take Danny and Danielle in the Specter Speeder,” Sam finished. “I know how to get to the Far Frozen, I just need an extra pair of hands with the both of them.”

“Which explains the warm clothes, okay,” Liz said. She nodded. “Okay. What do you need me to do?”

Once they had finagled both of the Phantoms and their ice baths into the Specter Speeder (which Liz had never seen up close before), Sam piloted it through the portal. Liz had heard of the famous Fenton Portal, but she’d never seen it before, and it made her weirdly nervous.

“So, this is the Ghost Zone,” Sam said as they went. Liz just watched with wide, amazed eyes as they sped through the g reen , door-filled emptiness.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Sam said. “I know Dani-- Danielle-- wanted to bring you here at some point, but, with this…”

“I’m just glad I can help,” Liz said. “I was starting to get worried, I hadn’t heard from Dani in a couple weeks.”

“I think she was roaming,” Sam said. She smoothly piloted them around a large floating rock in their way. “She had just come back, and then the heat wave hit, and she and Danny got hit hard by it. Hopefully, Frostbite can help them. Being in the Far Frozen in the first place should help a little, at least.”

“Frostbite?” Liz asked, interested. Sam nodded, though she didn’t take her eyes off their path.

“Yeah, Frostbite is the leader of the Far Frozen,” she said. “They taught Danny how to control his ice powers, and they’re kind of like doctors that specialize in cold cores.”

“This is amazing,” Liz said. Excitement sparkled through her, bright and silver, and she grinned. “I want to learn _everything_.”

Sam laughed a bit.

“I’m sure Danielle will be dragging you all over the Zone before long,” she said. “You’re like, her best friend, I guarantee she’ll want to show you all over.”

That made Liz pause and look at Sam.

“Really?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, there’s a ton of cool stuff to see in the Ghost Zone,” Sam replied with a nod. “Mattingly, definitely, maybe Pandora’s Acropolis--”

“No, not that,” Liz said, shaking her head a bit. “I’m her best friend?”

“Well, yeah,” Sam said. “What else would you call it? She’s safe with you, but you’re not like, trying to be her mom or anything, and you let her hang around all the time without being one of those crazy groupies. You guys have sleepovers and everything.” Sam grinned. “You know, she asked Mrs. Fenton to buy her a purple hoodie after the first night you came over.”

“Really?” Liz asked. “I hadn’t realized all of that.” She gave a short chuckle. “Guess I’m more blind than my glasses can fix.”

“I get the feeling you’re not used to people latching onto you like that,” Sam observed.

“No, not really,” Liz admitted. “I’m not exactly… well, social.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Sam said. “Honestly, we were surprised too, you kinda came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Liz said. She shook her head. “I guess I kind of wasn’t expecting it, I mean, the Phantoms are both famous, your Danny especially, and I just sort of live in my apartment on my laptop, you know?” She made sure to indicate which Phantom she was talking about, since their nicknames sounded identical.

“The Phantoms?” Sam repeated, raising an eyebrow. She quirked a bit of a grin.

“Hey, it’s easier than saying ‘Danny and Danielle,’” Liz defended, grinning a bit as well. “Or any other combination I had thought of. They both use the name Phantom, after all, so I figured, they’re ‘the Phantoms’ when I have to refer to them both at the same time.”

“I’m totally going to steal that, if you don’t mind,” Sam said, grinning. “Danny’s going to roll his eyes and it’s going to be great.”

Liz laughed a little.

“Go ahead,” she said.

The two lapsed into companionable silence for a while. Occasionally, Liz got up to check on the Phantoms to make sure they weren’t getting worse. The ice baths seemed to be helping, and being in the Ghost Zone seemed to be helping more. Both of the halfas were still unconscious, and Liz could see a faint green glow under both of their eyelids. Finally, Sam pointed towards something in the distance.

“There’s the entrance to the Far Frozen,” she said. “We’re almost there.”

“Good,” Liz said. “They seem stable enough, but I’ll feel better once we’re there, I think.”

“You and me both,” Sam replied. “Go change into your other clothes, we’ll be there soon and I think the name of the place speaks for itself.” She grinned. “You should be able to change back there, Danny and Dani are both--” She stopped, as if looking for the words. Liz snickered.

“Out cold?” she suggested, grinning.

“I was trying so hard not to say it,” Sam said, though she couldn’t help snickering herself. “Anyways, get changed.”

“Yeah okay, good idea,” Liz said. After checking on the Phantoms one more time, she quickly changed into her warmer clothes and pulled out her coat. Checking the time, she judged she still had a while before she needed to take her meds, and went back to the cockpit.

The landscape sparkled bright and white as Sam set the Speeder down on the snowy ground. Everything was ice and snow for as far as the eye could see, and it was pristine and perfect.

“Oh wow,” Liz breathed as she pulled her coat on.

“Yeah, it’s something,” Sam agreed, pulling on her own coat. “Come on, Frostbite’s probably already on his way this way, let’s go.”

Liz nodded and followed Sam out of the speeder.  The frigid air hit her like a punch to the throat, and she immediately shuddered. Her breath steamed and crystallized in the cold. They didn’t move the Phantoms yet, instead just opening the bay doors to let the cold in. The c hill seemed to stir the two halfas, and Danny in particular shifted a bit in his ice bath with a groan.

Indeed, it looked like someone was approaching them. Someone large, and hulking, and… furry?

“You didn’t tell me they were yetis,” Liz hissed to Sam as she watched the ghosts approach. And she could tell they were ghosts; they had that same sort of aura that the ghosts she had seen occasionally in Amity had.

“What does it matter? They’re our friends,” Sam replied.

“Hello, Samantha,” the leader said, raising a (claw? paw? hand? Liz didn’t know what to call it) in greeting. “What a surprise to see you out here. Where is the Great One?”

“Hey, Frostbite,” Sam said. She gestured to the Speeder. “We have Danny and Dani elle in there. There’s a heatwave back in the material world, and it hit them pretty hard. Can you help them?”

“Of course,” Frostbite replied. “It is hour honor to help the savior of the Ghost Zone.”  He gestured to the two yetis flanking him, and they both went to retrieve the Phantoms from the Speeder. Frostbite turned back to Sam and Liz. “I see you’ve brought a guest with you.”

“Oh, yeah, this is Liz,” Sam said. “She’s a friend of Danielle’s, and we trust her.”

“Hi,” Liz said, giving an awkward wave. Frostbite gave a wave in return.

“Hello,” the yeti said. “I am Frostbite, leader of this realm. Welcome to the Far Frozen.”

~*~

It was marginally warmer inside the lab, or whatever they called the medical area, though Liz still kept her hands in her sleeves whenever possible. She sort of hovered on the edge of the activity, staying fairly close to where Dani was being treated. At one point, the yetis had somehow managed to get both of the Phantoms to transform into their ghostly selves, and they were each now suspended in some sort of round tank.

“So… what’s happening now?” she finally asked one of the yetis. The yeti glanced at her, then glanced at Frostbite, who nodded. 

“We are getting their body temperatures stable,” the yeti she had spoken to replied. “This heat wave Samantha mentioned forced their temperatures to rise far too much, and it was doing some damage to their cores. Once they are stable and cooler, their cores should heal on their own.”

Liz nodded slowly as it was explained to her, a little surprised at how well she had understood what he was saying. There wasn’t much that she was unclear on.

“Okay,” she said. “So they’ll be alright?”

“With time, yes,” the yeti replied.

“Good,” Liz said with a sigh.

“ You seem to be taking this all in stride rather well for a newcomer,” Frostbite commented. “Samantha tells me this is your first ever trip into the Ghost Zone?”

“Yeah, it is,” Liz replied. “I don’t know, I guess I’m more worried about Dani than I am afraid  of the Ghost Zone .”

“Quite understandable,” Frostbite replied with a nod. “Your first thoughts are clearly to make sure they are cared for.”

“Well, yeah,” Liz replied, a bit surprised he even had to say so. “They’re my friends. And honestly, if the summer heat makes ME want to melt into a puddle of misery and beg for the sweet release of death, I can’t imagine how it makes THEM feel.”

“Poetic,” Frostbite said, humor in his voice. “But not inaccurate.”

“I’m a writer,” Liz admitted, feeling her face heat up a little. A little bit rust-colored embarrassment bubbled up inside her. “I can’t help it sometimes.”

“Ah, I see, I see,” Frostbite said. “Perhaps,  when all is said and done, you could pay a visit to Ghost Writer’s Manor. You might have some things in common with him.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Sam mused. She grinned. “Add it to the list of places to m ake Danielle take you.”

“ When I can take out my phone without risking my fingers, I will do so,” Liz said. To make the point, she pushed her glasses back up while keeping her hand still in her sleeve.

“ That’s fair,” Sam agreed, nodding.

Liz moved off to the side after that, letting the yetis do whatever it was they were doing without her getting underfoot. Clearly, they knew what they were doing when it came to the Phantoms.

“I believe we have done all we can for them,” Frostbite finally said. By this point, Liz had gone back to the Speeder and grabbed a Fenton Blanket out of it to sit on, to have something between her and the ice. “They will be fine, given some time to rest and recuperate. However, I feel it is best if they finish recuperating in their lairs.”

“Their… lairs?” Liz asked, looking at Frostbite. The yeti nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “I believe their recovery will be quicker if they are allowed to rest in their own territories, now that they are stable.”

“I know where Danny’s lair is,” Sam said, nodding. “I’ve been there before. But I didn’t know Danielle had one.”

“It would surprise me if she did not,” Frostbite said. “A ghost of her strength, even a l iminal , is more likely to have a lair than to not. And her ectosignature is not quite identical to the Great One’s, even if it is very similar.”

“ Okay,” Liz said, thinking about that. She wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by ‘ectosignature,’ but she had lived in Amity long enough to know that ‘ecto’ meant something related to ghosts, so she was able to sort of piece it together.

“So if she has a lair, how do we find it without her help?” Sam asked.  She glanced at Frostbite. “Unless you’re willing to let us use the Infi-Map?”

“Of course,” Frostbite said with a nod. “That would be the fastest way to locate the correct lair, rather than searching doors one by one.”

“Great,” Sam said. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Course of action decided, the yetis helped them get the Phantoms back into the Speeder. Danny and Danielle both seemed much better than before, though they were still unconscious for the moment. Once they were loaded up, Frostbite gave Sam what looked to Liz to be a glowing scroll, which Sam accepted.

“I take it that’s the map thing?” Liz asked. Sam nodded. 

“Yeah, this is it,” she said. “Come on, I’ll explain what it is on the way.”

“Sounds good,” Liz said. She turned to the yetis. “Thanks for all your help.”

“It was our honor,” Frostbite replied. “Safe travels.”

With that, the girls got back into the Speeder and Sam started it up. As the engines started, she opened the map and said, “Take us to Danielle Phantom’s lair.”

The scroll glowed, and a sparkling green path unrolled before them, coming from the map.

“ Well, that’s different,” Sam commented. “Probably because we’re in the Speeder. Alright, let’s go.” Taking the controls, she followed the path laid out before them.

It took a while to get to where the map was leading. The path twisted and turned, going around several other doors and various obstacles, and even looped around itself at one point. Sam didn’t even seem to question it, she just muttered a few things to herself and kept following the path. Most of the doors they went by looked the same, though Liz caught sight of a few that had names or icons or windows instead of being just solid and blank. Most of them were purple, contrasting with the green of the general Zone, though a few were different colors. Here and there she saw red and brown and black, and even one or two blue ones.

Finally the path ended, seemingly perfectly between two doors that were facing one another. One door had no embellishment, but was half black and half white, split on the diagonal.

“Huh, that’s Danny’s door,” Sam commented, looking at the black and white one. “I swear I told the Map to take us to Danielle’s door.”

“The other one is Danielle’s,” Liz said, looking at the second door. “I’m sure of it.”

“How can you tell?” Sam asked. Liz grinned a bit.

“Because it’s the color of her name,” she said. She gestured to the second door. It was blank, with no window or name or icon, but it was completely a delicate lilac color,  much lighter than the standard purple of the majority of the other doors around . “Look at that, they’re neighbors. Do neighbors even exist in here?”

“I guess they do now,” Sam replied. “ Alright, then, I’ll back the Speeder up to the door, if you think you can handle getting her into it?”

“I think so,” Liz said, nodding. “Going out into the Ghost Zone won’t like, give me radiation poisoning or anything, will it?”

“No, you’ll be fine,” Sam replied. “As long as it’s quick.”

“Okay.” Getting up, Liz went back to where the Phantoms were resting. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she carefully picked up Dani. The halfa was light enough that Liz didn’t feel much of a strain holding her, which Liz mostly assumed was a ghost thing, since Dani wasn’t absurdly skinny or anything. She waited until Sam gave her the okay and the bay doors opened. Liz hesitated just briefly, and then jumped out of the Speeder.

The odd weightlessness took her by surprise, and she almost let go of Dani. But she got a hold of herself just in time for them to tumble into the lilac door. Liz closed her eyes, expecting an impact, but the door opened on its own and swallowed them up.


	5. Home away from home

The odd weightlessness took her by surprise, and she almost let go of Dani. But she got a hold of herself just in time for them to tumble into the lilac door. Liz closed her eyes, expecting an impact, but the door opened on its own and swallowed them up.

Liz wasn’t quite sure what happened next, because the next thing she knew, she and Dani were deposited gently on what felt like grassy, slightly pebbly and twiggy ground. Opening her eyes, she blinked and looked around.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected the lair to look like, but she wasn’t sure she expected it to look like a public park. In fact, she was fairly certain it was Amity’s public park, except there were no people around, or animals. The park was weirdly quiet, except for the breeze rustling the leaves on the trees, and even those looked a bit odd when Liz gave them a second glance. She was used to the trees around Amity being mostly oak and elm mixed with various evergreens, but these trees were strange. She saw some of the typical trees that she expected, but she also saw what looked like weeping willows, japanese maples, flowering dogwood,  rainbow eucalyptus, and towering redwoods. Nestled under an enormous blooming wisteria and the trellis supporting it was a sturdy-looking camping tent. Figuring that looked like as good a place as any, Liz took Dani over to the tent and carefully went inside.

The inside was much larger than the outside in a weirdly familiar sci-fi way. It didn’t even look much like a tent on the inside; there were walls and furniture and even a comfortable-looking bed. Liz immediately took Dani over to the bed and laid her down as comfortably as she could. Once she was sure Dani would be okay there, she went and looked around the tent some more.

It looked more or less like a large bedroom.  There was the bed, and what looked like a bookshelf on one wall, and a dresser covered in what looked like trinkets from all over. Closer inspection revealed that the drawers on the dresser were fake.  There were two windows on opposite walls that were weirdly rounded and soft-looking with no glass, only the mesh that usually made up camping tent windows.  The wall opposite the bed had an enormous cork board on it, and it was partially filled with postcards from all over the world. Liz could see at least six major world cities including Paris, Tokyo, S ydney , London, Rome, N ew York , and Madrid.  There were several more from towns and cities that Liz didn’t recognize, and a few more she did.  Interspersed with the postcards were photographs. A lot of them were of Danny—both Fenton and Phantom—and his crew in various locations and situations. Some of them were clearly ghost fights, some of them looked like just hanging out. Several were just the two Phantoms, in human form and not, hanging out. A few were of Dani and a dark-skinned young woman in a red jumpsuit. Liz recognized her as Red Huntress, and she vaguely remembered her getting unmasked at one point, but Liz didn’t remember her real name.

R eaching out, she gently unpinned o ne of those photos and turned it over. It seemed to be dated to a couple of years before and had a small caption  written in slightly messy handwriting .

_Ran into Valerie and we went to the Nasty Burger to catch up._

Liz frowned a bit, thinking. She knew she’d heard that name recently. She mulled it over as she carefully put the photo back on the board where it had come from. Oh, now she remembered—Dani had mentioned the name Valerie back when Liz had been invited to the study group. Something about her Obsession flaring but Valerie was out of town. Liz figured Dani must have latched onto Valerie as one of her people just like she had latched onto Liz. That made sense.

She examined a few more photos on the board and was a little surprised to see herself in some of them. One obviously looked like it was from that first night she’d met the whole crew; she was sitting with them, Dani tucked up against her side, and her school notebooks were in front of her. Taking down the photo, she turned it over. Indeed, the date on it was the night of the study session. In the same handwriting as before, it was captioned  _ Most of my favorite people _ .

Liz smiled a little and put the photo back up carefully.  Another one looked like the living room of her apartment. She was at her desk, presumably working, and Dani was upside-down on the couch, her feet over the top and her head hanging down. Liz remembered this one; it was when Dani had agreed to do the interview. Looking closer, she could see her tape recorder on her desk next to her in the photo. Taking it down, she read the caption on the back.

_ Feeding my Obsession. Glad I could help Liz out. _

Liz smiled, joy bubbling up golden and warm and intense enough that her eyes started to prickle with tears. It was comforting to have the proof in her hands that Dani thought of her as a friend. Carefully, she put the photo back in its place. There were others, but no more that had her in them, and a lot that were just the two Phantoms doing various things togther.  It seemed like the entire board was made up of places Dani had been and, presumably, enjoyed, and good memories with her people. That made Liz smile again. She was glad Dani had these good things.

She poked around the rest of the room. There was a braided rug on the floor that looked like it would feel really good underfoot, made with all sorts of bright colors. There was a length of fabric draped from the ceiling, pinned in a few places, each pinned spot also holding a paper lantern that was giving off a gentle glow. The fabric looked like linen,  but Liz couldn’t identify where it might have come from. Overall, the entire room had the feel of the home base of a world-traveler. Which, Liz admitted, was pretty much exactly what Dani was.

Liz turned to check on Dani. The halfa was still asleep, though the sleep seemed much more natural now than the unconsciousness before. Her eyes were no longer glowing green under her eyelids, and her breathing was soft and even. Liz nodded a bit to herself in satisfaction before hiding a yawn behind her hand. Now that the excitement was over, she was getting tired. She studied the bed for a moment, wondering if she could share it with Dani without waking her friend, before deciding no, best not. Maybe she could make herself comfortable on the rug--

She turned and nearly tripped on a camping cot that hadn’t been there before. Liz knew it hadn’t been there before, she’d walked all over the room and it was definitely too big to have missed before.  It even had a blanket and pillow already on it. Liz gave a small, huffed laugh when she saw that the blanket was a calm emerald green. ‘Elizabeth’ indeed. Well, it would be rude to refuse the hospitality, so Liz settled herself on the camping cot, took off her glasses, and tried to catch a nap.

~*~

“Liz. Hey, Liz. Wake up.”

Liz stirred as her shoulder was shaken by a cold hand. Blearily, she blinked and tried to look around. Everything was blurry without her glasses, but she could make out a familiar black-and-white blur in front of her. Quickly, she grabbed her glasses from where she put them earlier and put them back on.

“Dani, you’re awake,” she said when her vision cleared to reveal her friend.

“Yeah,” Dani replied. She looked around warily. “Where are we? How did we get here? Where’s Danny?”

“Okay, hold up a second,” Liz said, holding up a hand for a moment.  She got up from the camping cot. “First, how are you feeling? You were in pretty bad shape from the heatstroke.”

“I… feel fine,” Dani said. She sounded a little surprised at that. “I feel great.”

“Good,” Liz said with a small sigh of relief. “Okay, so to answer your questions: you had heatstroke, so did Danny, so Sam and I got the two of you to the, I think the Far Frozen? The place with the yetis. Where they were able to cool you both down and stabilize you.  Apparently the heatstroke was causing core damage? ”

“It got that bad?” Dani asked. She went a bit paler than normal. She put a hand to her chest as if trying to feel for something. “Yeah, no, my core is fine, I don’t feel any damage…”

“Yeah, the guy in charge, Frost...bite? I think? He said that you’d both be alright after some rest,” Liz replied.

“Okay,” Dani said. “So where are we now? And where are Sam and Danny?”

“ Well, the yetis said you’d recover better if you were in your lair,” Liz said. “So… here we are. In your lair.” She waved a hand in the general direction from whence they had come. “Sam took Danny to his lair, it’s practically right next door. It’s literally right next door, actually.”

“Wait, back up, I have a  _ lair _ ?” Dani asked, eyes bright. “I didn’t know that!”

“Well, you do now,” Liz said. She grinned. “And this is the place.”

“Is it just this room?” Dani asked, looking around. “Is there more?”

“I mean there’s an outside?” Liz said uncertainly. “I don’t know, it’s your lair. Shouldn’t you know what’s here?”

“I don’t know,” Dani replied. She looked excited. “But we’re going to find out, come on.” Reaching out, she grabbed Liz’s hand and dragged her outside.

From the outside, it once again looked like a standard two-person camping tent nestled under a huge wisteria. The trees all looked the same from when they had arrived, but now Liz could faintly hear something else. It sounded like it was off in the distance, but she could swear she heard rushing water, or waves.

“Look at them all!” Dani said gleefully. She’d shucked the trappings of gravity and was flying in and out of the trees. “This is amazing!”

Liz grinned, just watching her. Something seemed to catch Dani’s eye as she crested some of the shorter (non-redwood) trees, and her expression lit up.

“Oh no way!” With that, Dani took off into the trees, towards something Liz couldn’t see.

“Wait, wait up!” Liz called, chasing after her. She didn’t have to chase her far; the trees abruptly stopped and opened onto a wide beach. What Liz had thought before was rushing water was indeed waves on the shore, and the ‘ocean’ seemed to go for as far as she could see. The beach wasn’t sand; instead, it seemed to be made of sea glass. The smooth, rounded pieces were all different shapes and sizes: most no bigger than a grain of rice, but some as big as Liz’s thumb. The vast majority of them were shades of blue and green: icy blue and cobalt, minty green and ectoplasmic neon,  some colorless transparent scattered in amongst them . However, Liz caught sight of a few b its here and there that were delicate lilac, and emerald, and brown, and red, and pink, and indigo.

“This is amazing!” Dani yelled as she flew around. She pulled some loops and twists in the air, whooping, and then seemed to smash into an invisible wall about a hundred yards out into the ocean. “I found the boundary!”

Liz couldn’t help but laugh a bit.

“So I guess it doesn’t go on forever?” she called.

“Definitely does not go on forever,” Dani called back. She made a face and gave her shoulder an exaggerated rub, and then grinned again and dove into the water with a splash. She was underwater for long enough that Liz started to get a little anxious and then came back up.

“So this is definitely all made of ectoplasm,” Dani said as she lifted back out of the water and briefly went intangible to drop all the wet off. “I mean, it’s a really, really good construct, and it probably won’t hurt you if you wanted to try to swim, but it’s definitely all ectoplasm so maybe don’t try to, you know, eat anything or anything like that.”

“Good to know,” Liz said, filing that information away for future reference.

“ I definitely want to explore this all,” Dani said as she touched down next to Liz. The sea glass chimed a bit underfoot. “But I also want to see how Danny’s doing. If he was as bad off as you said we were, I want to make sure he’s okay. You said he’s like my neighbor or something?”

“Yeah,” Liz said, nodding. “His door was next to yours. It’s black and white, and Sam said it was the right one, I guess she’s spent some time there?”

“That makes sense,” Dani said with a nod. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Danny brought her there sometimes, for some quality time away from his raving groupies.” She glanced around. “So how do we get out?”

“I have no clue,” Liz said with a helpless shrug. “It’s your lair, can you like, I don’t know, ghost-sense the door or something?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

The two of them glanced around, and then Dani reached out and tapped Liz’s arm.

“Is that my door?” she asked, pointing. About twenty feet away from them, on the beach, was the lilac door that Liz had seen when they’d arrived in the Speeder. It was still blank and a solid color, but it was definitely the same door.

“That’s the outside door, yeah,” Liz confirmed. “The one that let us in. Maybe it’ll let us out?”

“I’m gonna check it  out ,” Dani said. Going over, she turned the handle carefully and cracked the door open, peeking out. 

“What do you see?” Liz asked. She was unbearably curious, but she was also the squishy human, so she let Dani do the investigating.

“I see the Ghost Zone,” Dani said. She sounded surprised. “And I see a black and white door, I’m assuming that’s Danny’s?”

Liz went over and peeked over Dani’s shoulder.

“Yeah, that’s the one Sam said was his,” she confirmed.

“Great,” Dani said. She looked at Liz. “You got everything ready to go?”

“Ah, no,” Liz said. “My bag is back in the… tent? It has some important things in it so I can’t leave it.”

“Okay, then we’ll go grab that, and then go see what’s up with Danny,” Dani said, closing the door again. It disappeared, dissolving into bright green ectoplasm that splashed down onto the sea glass beach and drained away into nothing.

Dani started to walk back into the trees, and Liz followed. Liz had no idea how to get back to the tent, but Dani seemed to know the way, so Liz didn’t question it. She figured it was a ghost-and-her-lair kind of thing. Dani led the way unerringly back to the tent  and grinned.

“This is seriously cool,” she said. “I love it here.”

“I think that’s the point,” Liz ventured. “It’s yours, after all. Catered to you personally.”

“I know, I know,” Dani said. “I just wasn’t expecting to have a lair of my own. I guess I kind of thought I’d share Danny’s, since I’m, y’know, his clone.”

“Well, now you’ve got a lair of your very own,” Liz said, grinning.

“It’s awesome,” Dani agreed, beaming. “Okay, grab your stuff and let’s go.”

“Right.”


	6. Spirit Letters

The heat wave in Amity broke pretty quickly after that. It was still summer, and still too hot for Liz’s liking, but it wasn’t the unbearable heat that had sent the Phantoms into distress like before. Liz was glad for that, at least, even as she counted down the days until autumn again.

The summer also brought an unexpected visitor to Liz’s apartment. She had been dabbling in one of her hobbies at home, not really focused on anything, when the door buzzer went off. She paused what she was doing and frowned. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and anyone who DID visit her tended to be ghostly and knocking at the window, or would send her a text beforehand (or sometimes both). Someone hitting the buzzer was unusual. Going over, she hit the return button.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Hi, are you Liz?” The voice on the other end wasn’t one that Liz recognized. “ My name is Valerie Gray, I’m pretty sure we have a friend in common.”

That was a name Liz recognized. She recalled the name Valerie from the times Dani had mentioned her. Liz hit the button to buzz the person in.

“Thanks,” she heard Valerie say. Then there was silence on the comm. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and Liz went to open it.

A young woman stood there, about the same age as Danny and his crew. Her skin was dark with warm undertones, and her textured black hair was pulled back in countless small braids that were, in turn, gathered into a thick ponytail. She wore a tee from a university out of state and distressed denim shorts, and she had a backpack slung over one shoulder. She was definitely the one from the photo Liz had seen in Dani’s lair.

“Liz?” the newcomer asked carefully. Liz nodded and opened the door more.

“That’s me,” she said. Now having seen the young woman and recognizing her as one of Dani’s people, she was a bit less wary. “You’re Valerie?”

Valerie nodded, and Liz stepped aside to let her in. Valerie stepped inside and glanced around, and Liz saw her apparently mark the placement of the windows.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Liz said as she closed the door behind them. “Can I get you anything to drink or anything?”

“No, thanks,” Valerie said as she sat down on the couch. She set her bag down by her feet, not letting it go far.

“Okay,” Liz said. She sat down in the armchair adjacent to the couch. “So what brings you here?”

“Well, I heard Danielle made a new friend, so I thought I’d come and meet you for myself,” Valerie said. Her tone had a slight edge to it that was almost—but not quite—a challenge. “Honestly, I’m not sure what I was expecting.”

“Well, I can’t say I was expecting the Red Huntress to show up at my door, but here we are,” Liz said, cracking a bit of a grin to show she was mostly joking. She saw Valerie tense a bit at that, and held up a hand. “Really, it’s cool. Honestly, I was kind of wondering when I was going to meet you, myself. I’ve already met Danny and his crew, and Dani—Danielle—mentions you every so often.”

“She… does?” Valerie replied. She sounded a little surprised. Liz nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “You’re one of her people.  I don’t think she likes you being gone, even though she’s not about to stop you from going.” Liz paused. “At least, if I understand her Obsessions correctly.”

“Wait, hold on a second, she told you about her Obsessions?” Valerie asked. Her expression turned sharp again.

“Yes…?” Liz replied. She looked a little bewildered. “I mean, I interviewed her for school, and it came up in the interview, but she had the option not to answer anything she didn’t want to--”

“An interview?” Valerie i nterrupted . Liz thought she saw Valerie’s eyes flash red for just a second, so quick she wasn’t even entirely sure she’d seen it, and then Valerie took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. I’ve obviously missed some things while I was gone. Tell me what’s happened since you met Danielle.”

“Sure,” Liz said. She took a moment to collect her thoughts, and then started with how she met Dani. She had to pause every so often when Valerie asked questions, but overall it didn’t take too incredibly long.

“So you’re saying she has her own lair in the Ghost Zone now?” Valerie asked. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Liz replied, nodding. She grinned. “You should bring it up with her, I bet anything she’ll want to show you. I only saw it because I was there for the whole heatstroke thing to begin with.”

“I might do that,” Valerie said. She cracked a grin, the first one Liz had seen the entire time Valerie had been there. “You know, you’re alright. I’ll admit, I was kind of worried at first, since she’s getting pretty well-known, I wanted to make sure you weren’t one of those leeches trying to be her friend for the clout.  But I actually kind of like you.”

“Thanks?” Liz replied, a bit uncertainly. She shook her head a bit. “Anyway, it’s starting to get a bit late, you want to stay for dinner? No pressure, I understand if you have other plans already, just figured I’d offer.”

“Thanks, but I do have other plans,” Valerie said, apologetically. “Maybe we can get coffee or something sometime, get to know each other more?”

“Sounds great,” Liz said, nodding. She grabbed a sticky note and wrote down her phone number. She held it out to Valerie. “Here, this is my number, my door’s open if you ever want to drop in again. Just shoot me a text so I know you’re coming.”

Valerie took it with a small smile.

“Thanks,” she said.

Liz walked Valerie to the door, and closed it behind her when the huntress left. Well. That had been interesting. And now apparently she had one more name to add to the list of people she needed to make Christmas gifts for.

Over the next few weeks, Liz occasionally sent texts to Dani, and she didn’t get any answers. The only reason she didn’t worry was because she got a text from Danny saying he’d seen his sister in the Ghost Zone, and she was probably hanging out in her lair. It stood to reason that text messages couldn’t cross dimensions. But it gave Liz an idea, and she took a couple of days to work out the broad concept before she approached Danny and his crew with it.

“So what did you want to ask about?” Danny asked the next time they were all hanging out. The five of them—Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and Liz—were all hanging out in Liz’s apartment, since she had enough space and no threat of nosy, evesdropping family members. “You said you had some sort of idea?”

“Yeah,” Liz said. She pushed her glasses up her nose. “Okay, so, this is going to sound a bit crazy, but hear me out.”

“Oh, this should be good,” Valerie said, resettling herself. She and Liz had gotten to know one another better, and were actually decent friends now.

“So, first off, have any of you ever come across the concept of spirit letters?” Liz asked. She glanced around at them. A ll four of the others shook their heads. “ Okay, well, it’s a concept I came across a while back, that it’s possible to send letters to loved ones who have passed on by sending a spirit letter. I figured it was part of an offshoot of candle magic.”

“Whoa, wait, now we’re talking about magic?” Tucker asked. “Where did this come from?”

“It’s all connected, I promise,” Liz responded. “Okay, so a friend of my family is a practicing witch, and she taught me a bunch of stuff growing up. Mostly spiritual symbolism, symbolic spiritualism, things like that. Well, one of the things I learned was candle magic, or the act of using a candle or another source of fire to burn your intentions and send them out into the universe.  Fire is a purifying and transformative force, essentially turning matter into energy. ”

“ Which explains the mention of spirit letters,” Danny said. Liz nodded.

“Right,” she said. “So I was thinking—and this is where it gets kind of crazy so just stay with me on this—Dani has her own lair, and when she’s off doing her own thing she doesn’t have a particularly good habit of letting people know where she is. So I got to thinking, maybe I could somehow use spirit letters to send messages straight to her lair.”

“You’re right, that does sound crazy,” Valerie said, though she was grinning a bit.

“How would that even work, though?” Tucker asked. “Like, okay, I get the concept, sort of, but how would you get the letters to her particular bit of pocket dimension space?”

“I was thinking about that,” Liz said. “And it occurred to me that if I used a special candle, something tied to her, it could send the spirit letter to her lair. And I mean, I know how to make poured candles, it’s pretty much the same as making the blood blossom crayons, I would just need to somehow tie the candle to her specifically and I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.”

“So what you’re asking for is ideas on how to make it work?” Sam asked. Liz nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, if anyone would have an idea of how, it would be you guys.”

“That is true,” Tucker replied.

They all fell silent for a moment, thinking.

“What about ectoplasm?” Danny suggested. “If you need to latch onto Dani’s ectosignature, that would be the way to do it.  Obviously, it would have to be HER ectoplasm, but that’s easy enough, I’m sure she’d give you some for this. ”

“I suppose it would depend,” Liz mused, thinking. “I would need to somehow blend it into the wax for the candle, and it would still need to burn to work…”

“Well the burning won’t be a problem,” Danny said. “Ectoplasm burns well enough,  in small amounts . I’m sure we can figure out how to mix it into candle wax.”

“So what I’m hearing is we’re making a way to send letters into the Ghost Zone using, what, a ghost candle?” Valerie asked. She grinned. “This is actually kind of interesting. I want to see how this turns out.”

“We can experiment in my parents’ lab,” Danny offered. He grinned. “At least that way we can handle it if anything explodes.”

“Good plan,” Liz agreed. “I can handle molten wax. Exploding ectoplasm, not so much.”  She thought about it for another moment. “Okay, so I’m sure I have some leftover candle-making supplies somewhere. If I don’t, it’s easy enough to get from a craft store.”

“You just have candle supplies lying around?” Tucker asked. Liz grinned.

“One of the things about being ADHD is I dabble in a lot of hobbies,” she said. “My brain is constantly bored so I have to have a lot of different things on hand to play with. I have candle supplies, soap supplies, nail polish supplies, knitting and crochet, yarn-spinning, yarn-dyeing, sewing, and drawing all around here somewhere. A lot of those overlap, anyways, but I know at least a little about all of it.”

“ You’re weird,” Valerie commented.

“Pot, something something, kettle,” Liz replied, grinning a bit. The others snickered.

“ Well, just met me know when you want to use the lab,” Danny said. “Just so we have a heads-up.”

“Sure,” Liz said. She took out her phone to check through her calendar. “I have an article due in a couple days, so I’ll be working on that, and another one the next day, so I’m probably looking at next week.”

T he two hashed out a good time for Liz to come over and experiment, and she added it to her calendar.

“ So,” Valerie said once that was done. “You said you have a ton of hobbies. How does the nail polish thing work?”

“Well, the way it works…” Liz settled back in to explain her crafting hobby.

The following week, Liz found herself at Fentonworks, her candle supplies in a tote bag slung over one shoulder.  She’d gone out to buy some paraffin wax, since it was cheap and she didn’t want to waste the more expensive beeswax or soy wax if things didn’t work. She also threw some of the pigments and coloring agents she usually used with nail polish into her bag as well, to see what would work, and she had the wicks and standard pillar mold to pour it all into. She also made sure to bring her ‘recipe book,’ which was just a notebook she used to keep track of the soap and nail polish recipes she made. If all went well, she’d be adding a ghost candle recipe to the list, right next to the blood blossom crayon recipe.

Working in the Fentonworks lab was a little unnerving. The portal was right there, even though it was currently closed, and everything else she could see looked like it was held together with more than a little bit of duct tape and prayer. But apparently someone had cleared her a little corner to work in, a nd both Jazz and Danny were there, though Jack and Maddie Fenton were not.

“So, how is this going to work?” Jazz asked as she watched Liz unpack the crafting supplies.

“Hopefully, we mix ectoplasm into candle wax and make a ghost candle,” Liz replied. “With any luck, it will make it so we can send letters straight into Danielle’s lair in the Ghost Zone. Or the lair of whoever’s ectosignature is linked to the candle, I suppose.”

“Dani’s not here,” Danny commented, “but lucky for us, Mom and Dad insisted on having samples of both of our ectoplasm stored away, for future ‘just in case’ reasons.” He went over to a cabinet and pulled out what looked like a glass mason jar two-thirds full of glowing green fluid. The label on the jar read ‘Danielle Phantom.’ Liz eyed the jar warily.

“That… doesn’t look safe,” she said. “Then again this whole place looks like it’s held together with fishing line and spit, so I suppose it’s par for the course.”

“You’re not wrong,” Jazz muttered. Danny just shrugged and set the jar down with the rest of the craft supplies.

“It’s safe enough,” he said. “So, how are we doing this?”

“Well,” Liz said cautiously. “I suppose… melt the wax, mix in the additives, pour the mold, and see how it comes out?”

“Sounds like as good a plan as any,” Danny replied.

Carefully, Liz did pretty much exactly as she said. The wax melted down quickly enough and took the colored pigments well, and even though the ectoplasm was originally green, the final result was a faintly glowing purple candle. Once it came out of the mold, Liz poked at it a bit.

“It’s a little soft,” she finally said. “But not mushy. So I think it will work.” She made a note in her recipe book about that, for future reference, and then looked back at the candle. “We should light it, I want to make sure it will actually burn.”

“On it,” Danny said. He walked away, and then came back with what looked like a silver and green  Zippo  lighter with the Fentonworks logo on it.

“Oh no, is that a Fenton Lighter?” Liz asked, unable to keep from snickering. Jazz and Danny both made a face.

“ The Fenton Firestarter,” they said at the same time, in the same dead-inside tone. 

“I would say I didn’t think they’d make something like that, but having met your parents, I’m not surprised in the slightest.”  Liz shook her head a little bit.

“Let’s just light the thing,” Danny said. He clicked the lighter and touched the flame to the wick of the new candle.

The candle wick promptly caught and blazed with green fire.

“...Green, okay,” Liz said, blinking. “I wasn’t expecting that.” She glanced at the other two. “Is ghost fire a thing?”  She cautiously reached towards the fire. It wasn’t hot, but she didn’t stick her hand into it regardless of the lack of heat.

“It is definitely a thing,” Danny replied.  He held a hand out to it and nodded.  “ That is definitely ghost fire.”

“This might actually work,” Jazz said, sounding a little amazed.

“Okay, so, now we have to test it,” Liz said. She flipped to the back of her recipe notebook and tore out a blank page. Quickly, she wrote a note on it, signed it, and then glanced around. “Fireproof plate?”

“I’ll grab you one,” Jazz said. She jumped down from the stool she’d been sitting on, went over to a cabinet, and pulled out what looked like a plain white porcelain plate. She set it down next to Liz. Liz nodded in thanks, and then, carefully, touched the corner of the paper to the green ghost fire. 

The paper immediately caught, and Liz just barely managed to drop it onto the plate before it was consumed by the green flames. The ghost fire burned the note entirely, not even leaving any ash behind. Jazz was frantically writing down notes.

“Okay,” Liz said, eyeing the plate. “Well, it’s gone. So if it worked, hopefully Dani gets the message and we’ll know.”  Leaning over, she attempted to blow the candle out. It went out just like a normal candle would. That gave her an idea, and she used the lighter to light it again. This time, she licked her thumb and forefinger and pinched the green flame out like she would an ordinary candle. Again, it went right out. “Cool, it behaves like a normal candle.”

“Did you just put it out with your fingers?” Jazz asked. “Didn’t that hurt?”

“I learned how to do that when I was younger,” Liz replied. “If you do it right, you can lick your fingers and put out a candle without getting burned. Just don’t pinch it too hard, or for too long.”

“Can you teach me?”

“Sure, if you want.”

That was about the point the doors of the Fenton Portal opened, and Dani came barreling out. 

“You guys!” She looked around and saw the three of them. “How did you even DO that?!” She waved a piece of paper in her hand and Liz recognized it as the sheet that had come out of her notebook.

“Oh my god it worked,” she said, grinning.  Golden joy washed through her, along with a rosy glow of pride. “Oh my  _ g _ _ od _ it  _ w _ _ orked _ !”

“What worked, what did you do, how did you do this?” Dani asked. She flew over to them and put the paper on the table, and Liz could see the note she herself had written.

_ Dani, testing a way to send notes to your lair, let me know if you get this. --Liz _

“I made a ghost candle  to send spirit letters ,” Liz said, slightly giddy with her success. “And it  _ w _ _ orked _ .”

I t took a little while for Liz to explain exactly what she had done, but at the end of it, Dani was grinning.

“This is awesome,” she said. “It totally worked, I found it right on my memory board, front and center. And as soon as I saw it, I came here.”

“Excellent,” Liz said, grinning back. “I am so glad it worked. I may make a few of these, to have spares on hand. Maybe give Valerie one.”

“Great idea,” Dani agreed. She obviously liked the idea of Her People having a way to send her messages in the Ghost Zone.

“So, yay, experiment was a success,” Liz said. She was already gathering up her supplies to make a second ghost candle. Dani settled next to her to watch the process, interested,  and Liz ended up making two more ghost candles before her supply of wax ran out. Three was a good number; she’d keep one, give one to Valerie, and leave the third with Danny and his crew. She made a mental note to make a copy of the ‘recipe’ to leave with the Fentons, in case they ever needed more of them, or if they needed to make ghost candles with links to different ghosts. 

Once her wax supply was exhausted, Liz thanked Danny and Jazz for their help and packed up her things to head back to her apartment. Dani reluctantly let her go, and headed back into the Ghost Zone.


	7. Family Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say chapters would be more or less erratic. I can't promise regular updates, but chances are there will be more.

A couple weeks later, it was time for Liz to head to the annual family reunion. The family lived a ways away; her parents had ended up settling several states away from her grandparents, and it was her grandparents that hosted the reunion. She enjoyed the reunions, mostly; aside from her ridiculously conservative and slightly ~~racist~~ _old fashioned_ grandfather, the family was fun and she was pretty close to most of them. 

Dani was gone again, off on a wandering trip, so Liz made sure to send her a text and a spirit letter to let her friend know that she was leaving. She also texted Danny’s crew, just so they knew she was out of town as well. It was only courteous, she figured.

So Liz spent a day packing and making sure her apartment was okay to sit for a week while she wasn’t there. Clothes, electronics, basic necessities… After a moment of consideration, she decided to take the ghost candle with her, and carefully packed it in a plastic tupperware so it didn’t get smashed in her suitcase. Cell service wasn’t always reliable where her grandparents lived, and she wanted to make sure she had a way to send at least Dani a message if she needed to. She didn’t anticipate needing to, but better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

Taking out her phone, she quickly snapped a selfie of herself and her luggage at the door, and posted it to her social media account. It was traditional amongst herself and her cousins to document the trip and the reunion, starting from the moment they left home to head out.

_ Four-eyed-fire-lizard: Burnette represent! omw out the door now, t- _ _ minus 14hrs _ _! #Clarionreunion #CousinLiz #livefromAmityPark _

She scrolled quickly through the reunion tag to see if anyone else had posted already, and saw a few that were there. Her brother had posted his own selfie, which included his girlfriend and her sons, and two of her cousins had also posted.

_ S _ _ limJimDiesel _ _ : almost ready to leave, herding kids and dogs. ETA fifteen hours.  _ _ #Clarionreunion #stillnotgettingavan #CousinJames _

_SadBeautifulTragic: three kids, one suitcase. Anything we leave behind we can live without. It’s only three days. #Clarionreunion #CousinJessica #CousinsJaxBailey &Landon #thiswillbefun #andbyfunImeanterrible_

_ Unicorns.are.real: all packed up and ready to leave tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing everyone. I won’t e _ _ at PB _ _ this year I promise. #Clarionreunion #CousinTess # _ _ i’dsellyoutosatanforaPBcup _

Liz grinned a bit at the posts. Looked like the family was starting to gear up for the reunion. Time for her to head out, if she wanted to make anything resembling good time. Grabbing her suitcase, she locked up her apartment and headed out to her car.

She hadn’t been kidding when she had said the drive was fourteen hours.  She only stopped for food and gas, and made it to her grandparents’ place by that night, exhausted and more than ready to sleep for a while. Before she crashed for the night, she took one more selfie and posted it.

_ Four-eyed-fire-lizard: made it, gonna sleep now. See everyone tomorrow for the reunion. #CousinLiz #Clarionreunion #1 _ _ 4hrslater _

Just before she closed her social media, she happened to see a message blinking in her inbox and she opened it.

_She’sAPhantom: got your messages (both of them). Might swing by to say hi. #partycrasher_

Liz snickered. That was definitely Dani. Quickly, she tapped out a message.

_Four-eyed-fire-lizard: the more the merrier. Fair warning, my grandfather is prickly and has Opinions on a lot of things. Being human with us might be best._

The reply was pretty much immediate.

_She’sAPhantom: good to know. One party-crash, coming up._

Grinning a bit, Liz put her phone on the charger and fell into bed. She was asleep before she knew it.

The next morning, Liz was up and about earlier than she would have liked, but it was time to start moving things out for the reunion. Her grandmother always rented the pavilion at the local park, since there were so many people coming, so there was a lot of stuff to move before people arrived.  The park was on a lake, and there was a small play area, so there was plenty for the youngest cousins to do. The older ones, like Liz, were more likely to take a boat out around the lake for a while. But first, everyone had to arrive and get settled.

Two cups of coffee got Liz out to the park and helping unload things. She had her phone, and the park was thankfully in a cell coverage area, so she had service. Hopefully Dani would text her before just showing up to crash the party.  Liz was promptly distracted when her cousins started showing up in earnest, and she went to go greet them all.

S he was promptly swarmed by some of her younger cousins, all shouting questions at her and tugging on her arms.

“Have you seen any ghosts?”

“What’s it like?”

“Do you have any pictures?”

“Tell us!”

“Guys, okay, relax,” Liz said as she tried to tug herself free of them. “You ask the same things every year. Yes, I’ve seen some ghosts, I live in Amity Park, there are always ghosts. You kind of get used to it.” She paused, and then grinned. “But… I do have one new thing to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Tell us!”

“I…” Liz paused for dramatic effect. “... G ot to meet Phantom.”

There was a stunned silence for a moment, and then her cousins exploded at her. It took them a moment to calm down enough for Liz to make out a few requests for pictures.

“Okay, hold on, hold on,” Liz said. She took out her phone. Luckily, she had some cell service, and she deemed it to be enough for a picture to make it through. Quickly, she tapped out a message  to Danny .

_ LB: hey question. So I’m at my family reunion and my cousins are all over me asking for a picture of Phantom, can you do me a huge favor and snap a quick selfie for me please?? _

There was a pause of a few minutes, during which Liz’s younger cousins continuously pestered her for pictures. Finally, her phone buzzed, and she pulled it out again. She’d been sent a picture of Phantom, clearly a selfie. He was grinning at the camera and flashing a peace sign. There was no caption, but Liz didn’t need one. 

_ LB: you’re the best, thanks so much. _

Once she’d replied, she turned the phone around so her cousins could see the picture.

“Oh my god it’s really Phantom!”

“You know him, for real!”

“This is so cool!”

Liz grinned and let them freak out over the picture for a little while longer before putting her phone away and shooing them off. Time to retreat back with her older cousins, the ones of the same age with her. They were easier for her to hang out with.

The hours passed so quickly that Liz wouldn’t have believed it was already lunchtime if she hadn’t checked the time on her phone. It seemed like everyone had just arrived when her uncles fired up the grill.  She and her similarly-aged cousins had already been out on the lake once, and she’d uploaded the selfies she took to her social media ( _ #boatlife, #Clarionreunion, #CousinLiz _ )

E veryone was just gathering for lunch when Liz heard a familiar voice.

“You all the Clarions?”

Liz grinned. Seemed like their party crasher had arrived.

“Who’s asking?” One of Liz’s older cousins asked, though the question wasn’t necessarily challenging.

“Dani, with an I,” Liz heard. She grinned.

“She’s a friend of mine, Ken,” she interjected, standing up. Dani was standing a handful of yards from the pavilion,  in human form and wearing nondescript jeans and a lilac tee with a cartoony-looking ghost on it. Liz went over to her and gave her a quick, family-style hug.

“Told you I’d crash the party,” Dani said, grinning.

“Yep,” Liz agreed. “Come on, feel like a burger or something? They just came off the grill.”

“That sounds amazing,” Dani agreed, nodding. “I’m starved.”

Liz  walked Dani into the pavillion and handed her a paper plate.

“I’ll start introductions once you’re settled,” she said. “There’s a lot of us, I promise nobody expects you to remember their names immediately.”

“Is this your whole family?” Dani asked, glancing around even as she grabbed two burgers and a big handful of chips.

“No,” Liz replied as she took another burger for herself. “A few of us couldn’t make it this year, but this is most of us.”

“Big family,” Dani commented. She took a seat next to Liz.

“Yeah,” Liz replied, grinning. Once they were sitting, her younger cousins, the same ones from before, descended on them.

“Are you one of Liz’s friends?”

“Are you from Amity Park too?”

“Do you know Phantom too?”

“What?” Dani blinked at the rapid fire questions.

“Yes, she’s a friend of mine from Amity,” Liz cut in. “She travels around, and she was nearby, so she dropped in.”

“ Okay but do you know Phantom?” one of the kids demanded.

“I might,” Dani replied, a bit wary. She shot a questioning look at Liz. Liz leaned over.

“I had to text Danny for a selfie earlier,” she whispered in Dani’s ear. “They won’t shut up about it now.”

“Oh that’s fun,” Dani replied. She looked at the kids and grinned. “I might have run into Phantom once or twice,” she told them. Immediately, the kids begged for stories about Phantom.

L iz glanced around as Dani indulged the kids with some stories of Phantom fighting ghosts, and she saw her grandfather with a stormy look on his face. Yep, Grandpap caught wind of ghost talk, that wouldn’t end well. She would have to make sure to run interference between him and Dani, if she needed to.

Luckily, she didn’t really need to. Liz and her cousins managed to keep Dani away from the adultier adults until it was time for the reunion to wrap up. By then, everyone except Dani had gotten a bit of sunburn, and even the kids’ energy was fading. Dani trailed behind Liz as Liz started to make the rounds of her family again, now saying goodbye to everyone as they left.

“You do this every year?” Dani asked once Liz had made her rounds.

“Yeah,” Liz replied. “It’s fun, I don’t get to see the Clan much through the year, so this is my chance to see everyone again.”

“ It’s nice,” Dani said. She sounded a little wistful.

“Yeah,” Liz agreed. “I do love my family. I don’t think I could handle them all the time, but a couple times a year is fun.” She glanced at Dani. “You’re welcome to come next year, if you want. People bring friends, sometimes, it’s cool.”

Dani seemed to consider that for a moment, and then nodded.

“I think I will,” she said. “As long as the offer is still open next year.”

“It will be,” Liz replied. “I’ll make sure of it.” She grinned and gave Dani a one-armed hug. “And next year maybe you can even show off to my cousins, I’m sure they’d like that. I would just need some time to ease Grandpap into the idea, he… doesn’t really like the whole concept of ghosts.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured,” Dani said. “I saw the glaring.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Liz said. “Next year will be better.”

“Cool, then it’s a plan,” Dani agreed, grinning. She glanced around and, once she was sure nobody was watching, she went ghost. “I’m going to head out. Shoot me a message when you’re home again.”

“Will do,” Liz said, nodding. “I’m leaving tomorrow, so I should be home late tomorrow night.”

“Sounds good,” Dani said. She took off from the ground. “ See you back home!” She disappeared from sight, and Liz assumed she flew off, invisible. With that, she headed back to help pack up the last of the food from the reunion and headed back to her grandparents’ place.   



End file.
